On external and moral progression

One of Batushka’s spiritual daughters relayed the
following questions from her son. 1. "According to the Scriptures, before
the end of the world, human society is presented in the most horrible way. This
denies the possibility of continuous improvement of mankind. Is it possible to
labour for the good of mankind, knowing beforehand that there are no means that
will be capable of achieving a concluding result of moral perfection for the
human race, before the world’s demise. 2. The responsibility of a Christian is
to create good and endeavour that this good will triumph over evil. In which
way can we attempt to conquer evil with goodness, knowing that these efforts
will not be crowned with success and that in the end, evil will triumph?"

Answer from Starets Ambrose: "Tell your son:
evil has already been vanquished, vanquished not by the efforts and strength of
human beings but by the Lord and Saviour Himself, Son of God Jesus Christ. Who
for that reason came down to Earth from Heaven, incarnated, suffered humanly
and through His suffering on the Cross and Resurrection - smashed the power of
evil and its source the devil who had reigned over the human race – liberated
us from the devil’s and sinful slavery as He himself said: "Behold, I give
you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power
of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you" (Luke 10:19) Now,
through the Mystery of Baptism and by obeying the laws of the Scripture, every
practising Christian is given the strength to trample evil and create good, and
except those that are negligent in keeping God’s laws or mainly the ones that
voluntarily submit themselves to sin, nobody can be forcibly possessed by evil.
Wanting to conquer evil with your own strength, evil that has already been
conquered through Christ’s coming, shows a lack of understanding of the
Christian Mysteries of the Orthodox Church. It exposes signs of human pride in
self-reliance which wants to do everything with its own strength, not turning
to God for His assistance when Christ Himself says: "for without Me you
can do nothing" (John 15:5).

You write: the Bible states that before the end of
the world, evil will triumph over good. The Bible does not state this anywhere,
but it only speaks that faith will diminish during the last days: "when
the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on Earth?" (Luke 18:8)
and "And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow
cold" (Mat 24:12). While Apostle Paul says that before the Second
Coming of Christ: "and the man of sin is revealed, the son of
perdition, and who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or
that is worshipped" (2 Thes 2:3-4), that is, antichrist. However, it
too states here that Christ will destroy him "with the breath of His mouth
" and through His coming, exterminate him…Where is there evil triumphing
over good here? And generally all triumphs of evil over good are imaginary and
temporary.

On the other hand, it is also unfair to state as
though humanity on Earth is continually improving. Progress or improvement is
only in the outward human works, in life’s comforts. For example, we utilise
railways and telegraph, which did not exist before; coal is being dug up which
used to conceal itself in Earth’s bosom etc. In Christian-moral respects, there
had been no progress. Throughout all times, there had always been people –
guided by the true faith of Christ and following the true Christian teachings
in accordance with Divine Revelations which God revealed to His Church through
the God-inspirited, Prophets and Apostles– that achieved high Christian-moral
eminence. These people will also exist during the times of antichrist, and as
written, for whose sake time will be shortened: "And unless those days
were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days
will be shortened" (Mat 24:22).

Spiritual perfection on Earth is attained partly,
not by mankind collectively, but by every faithful individually, according to
the measure of fulfilling God’s commandments and to the measure of humility.
Final and complete perfection is reached in Heaven, in the next never-ending
life, toward which yet our short life on Earth serves as a preparation and is
similar to that of the years spent by a youth in a learning institution, which
serve him as a preparation for future practical activity. If the destiny of
mankind was limited to its earthly existence, if for a human being everything
concluded on Earth, then why: "both the earth and the works that are in
it will be burned up" (2 Peter 3:10) Without the future blessed,
everlasting life, our earthly sojourn would be harmful and incomprehensible.

The desire to toil for the good of mankind appears
very admirable, but is misplaced. In words, everybody wants to labour for the
good of close ones, ignoring or paying very little attention to the necessity
of first shunning sin themselves and then worrying about others.

The broad schemes of the modern generation about
grand activities for the good of all mankind has the appearance that of
someone, not having finished an educational course, wishing that he could be a
professor and instructor in a university. However on the other hand, to think
that if we cannot move humanity forward then we shouldn’t labour at all, is the
other extreme. Every Christian is obliged to toil according to his capacity and
position for the good of others, so that everything timely and orderly, and
that the fruit of our labours are presented to God and His holy will.

In conclusion, I would say this: advise your son
not to confuse outer human endeavours with the spiritual- moral. In outer
devices and partly in the sciences, let him find progress. But in a
Christian-moral respect, I repeat, universal progress in mankind is
non-existent and cannot be. Everybody will be judged according to their deeds.